And The Dam Broke
by VanishRain
Summary: Set six months after 100, Brennan knows what she has to do... that is if it isn't too late.
1. Fate Anew

"I know." I lightly sob against the refection of the vain of my existence. The words so brutal and raw, beating every ounce of life out of this frail body. Why couldn't I have said something… just anything that made him stay but once again my logic was just enough to send the only constant in my life running for the hills.

It has been six months yet those words still haunt me, taunting and teasing me from the inside out. Every waking second, just trying to stop the bleeding as my heart is ripped from the shell of the woman I have become. For the second the words fluttered from my lips, I knew they were all wrong.

Yet he was the one who let me slip away so easily, fall to the wayside just like a discarded piece of trash. Etching the line so clearly, keeping me at a distance with just a faint smile and tone of utmost professional. As my heart softened and the truth became evident, I knew he was too far gone. So I sit here alone with a truth that was never given a chance.

_I do love him, always have and always will._

Fate.

It was not the woman I was meant to be but rather the woman I am because of him, for him and without a doubt, who he needs. I can deny it all, logically defending each heart destroying blow but the reality is I am who I am because of him but if that was ever enough is a question I will never know.

The rain beating down against the window has become my sole companion, swirling with the tears dancing around my lids. Six months, I have kept these tears at bay but tonight was my breaking point. I now know I cannot live this life of obscurity and emptiness.

Living this life alone is a destiny I cannot accept, it is now or never. All or nothing, by hell tonight I am going down. Either crashing and burning or lifting on the wings of an angel, tonight will be the start of the rest of my life.

"Ma'am, 2600 28th Street, correct?" The words shake me back to reality.

My eyes flick back to the man who has been talking for the past fifteen minutes, of what I am not sure but the compassion written all over his features gives my heart slight comfort. With a slight nod and brief smile I look up at the structure I have come to call home but somehow its cold features send my heart beating erratically in my chest.

"Your fare is 12.50." The man smiles, "Don't forget your flowers." He points toward the small arrangement to my left.

"Oh… ye… yeah." My words rattle as I shake the small piece of paper that seals my fate.

Stepping out of the cab and onto the sidewalk, my heart begins to constrict in my chest. For the last six months I have lived in hell, pure hell as I watch the man I love more than anything drift further and further from me… from my heart, from us.

And in my last ditch effort, I know this will either prove that we had in fact lost our chance or he was right all along.

Exhaling deeply, my heels click softly against the rain drenched streets. My eyes affixed on a singular window, watching the shadows dance almost perfectly in sync. The thunder cracks and clouds break, revealing the soft glow of the sky shining down on the broken streets below.

And I know this will be the night.

Why tonight, you ask?

4,300 hours.

That is all it took for me to know I'm an idiot.

I love him.

More than any rational woman should.

But him…

You see, he loves her.

More than I ever thought he could love me.


	2. Completely Irrational

"Temperance, my dear… come in, come in" The man standing the doorway ushers me with a shocked yet silly grin. "It is early for our impromptu dinner but we can partake in…" He stops speaking and just smiles, we both know why I am here. It has been six months in the making. Each pivotal point leading up to an insurmountable feat, a majestic undertaking for the hope of my sanity.

_I love him._

_I want to marry him._

_He is my world._

Without stopping to even acknowledge the man I so rudely interrupted, I walk though the foray to his kitchen table a path that has been firmly etched in my memory. I showed up in the middle of the night a few months back, sure that he was the keeper of the answers I seek but as the sun began to rise I quickly realized that I was the keeper of the answers. I always was but as the late night meetings had become a weekly event, he assured me that the time would come when they would be revealed, and tonight is that night.

"Tea? Crumpets?" He asks, trying to keep up, "You are quite early this evening, I didn't have time to…"

My eyes flick up and he smiles.

"Scotch it is."

I look up from my shaking hands just in time to see him sit and slide the glass across the table, filled to the brim and leaving an amber trail in its wake.

"Dr. Wyatt…" I lightly laugh at the glare radiating from the other side of the table, "Gordon… I… I… need to talk…"

"That has become quite apparent recently…" His voice lightly soothes, ""It is only 6:23, it seems awfully early for your nightly routine."

"I…" I shudder as wave after wave of fear falls on my fragile heart, "I think I need to verbalize some realizations I have concluded must be correct for any hypothesis to fit within rational means." I try to speak in my most clinical voice but the fragility of my words betrays me, seeping through every crack of my barely beating heart.

"About a certain man who shall remain nameless?" He smiles, "I doubt those flowers and tight black dress are for me. Flattery has never been your forte, Temperance, we both know this so what brings you to my door this early in the evening?"

"I think…" I lightly sob, "I think…"

"You think or do you know?"

My eyes slowly draw up from my glass, attempting to glare him into oblivion.

"You may be able to fool your coworkers and even the man who has without hesitation fallen for you when you were without grace but you did not come to them in the middle of the night, completely heartbroken and destroyed. You came to me, a man who long ago has distanced himself from your emotional qualms."

"He told me he loved me. That he loved the thought of _us_… then he ran, what was I to do? They just don't understand."

"And you believe I do?"

"You seem to hold reasonable qualifications, yes." I nod. "You hold ample knowledge of both our working aptitudes and emotional interdependence."

"Unrequited love can make even the strongest man… or woman fall. Historically kingdoms have risen and fallen because of such notions... sometimes even for less." He leans back, smug smile forming at his lips.

"Unrequited, my ass." I snarl, balking at such silly assumptions, "He was the one who said he loved me."

"He may have said it but Temperance, who was the one who knew it?"

"He did." My eyes fall, "He said so."

"Temperance…"

"What? He did!" I defensively lean back, attempting to keep the truth from implanting itself firmly on my face.

"He may have told you that his feelings were more than professional but who risked it all on a whim? For a completely rational person, he is your one weakness… your kryptonite."

"I don't know what that means."

"Sure you do." He smiles, "You know more then you give yourself credit for. You listen to every word that comes from the lips of your partner, cataloguing it without hesitation because in your mind you don't need any more reason then he told you. He would never lie to you and you trust him explicitly so it reasons that you would give up the one thing you spent most of your life clinging to. You're rational in every other state of affairs. For him though you, Temperance, are irrational."

"I did no such thing. You are being absolutely preposterous!" I jerk up and begin to pace, "As a scientist I must stay rational to fulfill my tasks successfully. Becoming irrational would not do much more then hinder my success."

"Then what is it that you so ruefully rushed over here to confide in me when in just a few short hours you would be knocking at my door, tears streaming down your face and completely heartbroken? What was the pressing matter that couldn't wait a mere few hours?" He presses the subject, determined to get his answer.

"I… I want to marry him." My eyes finally lift as my gaze locks his in complete vulnerability, "As irrational as it seems, I have concluded that he has become a necessity in my sanity and work performance. I need him as a permanent affixture in my life."

"And what facilitated the need to tell me this today?" He smiles, trying to get me verbalize the words I have been dancing around for months.

"I passionately love him and well… I know it is customary for the male to ask the father of the female for permission to marry his daughter and well… you are the closest to a father figure he has." The words slowly flow, "I would like your approval to ask him… well… can I ask him?" The words slowly grind out and I hope I don't pass out as reality finally sets in.

"I thought you would never ask." He smiles, "This calls for a drink. More scotch?"


	3. Science Cannot Fix a Broken Heart

I meant to have this up before tonight's episode but the hockey game was on and well… I watched it till the end before I started writing. Happy it didn't go into OT, aren't ya? I am all jumpy because of the win so this might be a bit jumbled but I hope it holds up to your expectations.

* * *

"You know he loves you…" I hear Angela's voice trail off as her heels click against the tile, "Remember that Bren. It takes two… not just one and a half hearts."

"I know" I relent, trying to push my bubbling emotions deep down inside, "but you don't understand…" My eyes lick up and I sigh, I am talking to myself.

Gazing back down on the flickering screen it takes all my effort just to keep my mind from wandering. The ability to write anything that would be held up in court is way beyond anything I can even comprehend. I am a broken woman, completely destroyed by a singular fact.

_I love him._

I love him more than I thought I could, more than a woman should love a man. It took five years, countless nights alone and dances with death but this woman is more sure of this then she has ever been before. The fact that he has moved on is destroying what little faith I had left.

Pulling my top drawer open, I pull out a single small box. For years this box has held all my hopes. The nights felt crying alone, the way my heart shatters when he is not around, this box has seen it all and so much more. I pop the lid open and gasp.

A thin silver band engulfed in black. The black velvet seems to almost drown out the gleaming metal but there it stands out, unwavering and devoted solely to one purpose. One day this ring will leave this box and that day I will become whole.

"She just can't possible understand…" I mumble, trying to find answers in the small black box, "Not even if they are plain to see."

"Don't understand what Bones?" His voice breaks me out of my revere, suddenly ashamed.

"No-nothing." I babble, unable to look up at the man who has stolen my heart.

"Well, we got a hit on those prints and… are you sure you are okay, Bones? You are starting to turn green." He leans forward, trying to get a glance on what is drawing my attention from him.

I snap the lid closed, shoving it with all my force into a stack of papers.

"Yes, I… I just…" I clear my throat and look up, "I am just really tired."

"I told you that you need to get more sleep." He chuckles, trying to break the sudden tension that has fallen over my office. "Do I need to stay at your place to make sure you sleep too?"

I am silent, knowing if I speak my walls will break and the words will be never ending. My eyes are drawn to him but suddenly fall, the weight of my reality hitting me like a ton of bricks.

"Well since you have no more information about the case…. I'm heading back to Hoover now, Bones." He takes a step back as my eyes darken. I am closing up as quickly as my mind can shut down. The electricity that seems to flow between us ceases as he tears his eyes away from mine on a shudder, "Lunch… I'll call you…" He pushes the words out on a stutter and my eyes once again fall.

I can feel Booth's eyes drill into my head, willing me to at least look up from the computer screen. My eyes dance across the top of the screen, playing Russian roulette with my heart but in the end they falter, jerking back to down to safety.

"Okay." I speak on a sigh, trying to will the tears from falling behind my blue walls.

"When you find the cause of death… call me… okay?" He pleads, turning abruptly and leaving me alone with the tension I created.

Once again I am left alone with my feelings. I know this won't be the last time I almost break in front of him. If I don't do something drastic… something to break the tension I feel deep down. I know this will finally shatter me completely, leaving me without any other recourse. I cannot keep living this lie any longer. I need the truth, purging what little hope I have left in exchange for a chance at eternity.

"Hey Bren… you didn't…" My hallow eyes drag up at her words, "Bren…" Her voice is a soft whisper, dancing across the office.

A single tear runs down my check, begging its companions to follow.

"Angela… I think I…" My voice holds firm but I know the truth is written all of my features, "I think I made a mistake."

"Clark double checked you figures. They are correct." She assures, pointing toward the folder with emphasis.

Without a word I slide the small black box forward, practically shoving it off the table. I hold my breath and wait, wait for the onslaught of daggers soon to follow.

"Do you think he will like it?" My voice is a faint whisper but as the colour drains from her face, I know she heard every singular word.

"Bren, this is a wedding band." She gasps, focusing on the damn metal.

"I know."

"Where did you get this?"

"A jeweler."

Her eyes dart between the box and the man unknowingly leaving me so shattered. She finally settles on the box, unable to wrap her mind around such news.

"Bren, when did you get this?" Her voice is frantic as she tries to process the surprising news.

I am silent. She knows. This piece of jewelry is not a recent purchase. If I had to count the pieces of jewelry I have bought since this one I would not be able to do so. The years of wear evident by the dust and small scuff marks over the mahogany.

"What you are saying is the man of your dreams was standing right before you… feet away from the band that professed your deepest devotion yet you just let him walk away?" She baulks, astonished at my composure.

My heart shatters slightly as my eyes affix on the sparkling silver band. So perfect in its simplicity, holding all my hopes and fears in a single circle of metal.

_You turn the rational irrational_

Such a small inscription yet it holds all I hold dear. All I have known and all I will know. He is my one weakness, my one unresolved struggle. As night begins to fall over my fragile heart, I know he is all I will ever need.

"Angela…" I sigh, unwilling to look up, "It is more complicated then that."

"No, Bren, no. Don't even start with me. I bet he doesn't even know you have this."

"Of course not, that would be preposterous."

"Yeah and this whole three ring circus thing you to have going on isn't. That makes so much sense. He tells you he loves you, practically grovels for you to give him a chance but you turn him down. Then six months later out of the blue I walk in on you staring at a wedding band. Yeah, Bren, that is totally normal."

"Yes it is…" I defend, matching her glare for glare, "when the man you love, loves another."


	4. Legalities of Love

"_Tell him_, Bren, if you don't I will." I hear Angela's words reverberate over and over as I slowly walk the steps towards his office. I know it is childish of me but the fear inside seems to have taken a hold and I fear it won't relent.

So now here I walk, like a ghost I float up the three flights of stairs hoping I have the courage to speak the truth. The truth I have been hiding from so long, it feels almost like a fantasy.

"Dr. Brennan!" Charlie squeals as I almost walk into him but I don't even stop to acknowledge him. I am a woman on a mission.

"Andrew…" I snap as I push open the door I seek without warning.

"Temperance," He smiles but his smile soon falls, "so nice to see you. What brings you to me this evening?"

"We need to talk…" I narrow my eyes at the suddenly nervous man before me.

"About those flowers… I… I didn't know you didn't…" He fumbles, refusing to look up from his desk, "Who the hell knew you didn't like purple?" He says defensively as my eyes rake up his weak form.

"About Booth, Andrew. Not those stupid, shitty flowers you sent me." The stark growl flowing from lips sends his now fearful gaze to meet my burning one, "We need to talk about our… rules."

"Rules?" Andrew leans back with surprise, "I assure you whatever rules you and Agent Booth have has no correlation to you dating _me_."

"FBI… ru- guidelines… about partners…" I bark at in astonishment. How in the world can this idiot not see that the only FBI personal I will be dating will be the man I adore not some damn sheep, "partners in a committed sexual relationship." I say sternly and he sinks.

"Oh."

"I remember clearly that when you wanted to engage in sexual intercourse" I continue, ignoring the man falling apart before me, "you said there were some forms that needed to be filled out to bypass the regulations…"

He nods.

"A disclosure of sorts…" He shuffles through the papers on his desk, still in shock, "it is still in the beginning stages…."

"But will it work?" I plead, "Will it be sufficient? I need this to work… I need him. Please, Andrew, _Please_."

My trembling voice brings his gaze back up to mine. I can feel the fear consuming me piece by piece and I know he can see it as plain as day. His eyes fall to his hands but soon lock onto me.

"You really love him don't you?"

"Yes." For the first time in weeks my voice is firm and strong.

"And I never had a chance, did I. I mean even if I were to have sex with you, you would have been thinking of him wouldn't you? Comparing everything I did to him, concluding that I would never measure up…" He trails off, wondering how he ever thought he could make me love him.

"Andrew, I am sorry…"

"But it wasn't me… I mean, if anyone would have had a chance… I would have had a good shot, right?"

I am silent. My heart has been my partners for so long I have forgotten what it feels like to have feelings for another.

"Wow." His eyes go wide as the truth slowly sets in, "This is more than sex, isn't it? This is…"

"Irrational, stupid and I don't even know if he feels the same..." I break as the tears begin to flow, "but I just need to know. I need to know that I gave this my all. I need to know I did all I could because… as irrational as it seems, I need him."

"So…" Andrew coughs in a feeble attempt to clear the tension, "about that form…"

Clenching the thin, white paper sealing my fate I march down the hall toward my partner's office. As I turn toward his door my fear suddenly turns to anger. He is the alpha male. He is the one who should have done this… if it is me he wanted at all. But he didn't, he took the cop out at the slightest sign of a broken heart.

"Sign this." I walk into Booth's office and slam down the piece of paper.

"Bones…" His eyes draw up from the paper to my brazen stance in his office. They flicker with _something_, some deep dark emotion that forms a growl around my lips. He better not cop out… again.

"I don't need you to read the damn thing" I bark but my voice soon softens at his chocolate pools, "please… Booth… please just sign it for me." My voice wavers as I lean over the desk for strength.

"And what if I don't?" He scans the first few lines and sighs, "I may not know what this means but I do know it affects my partnership too."

"I know but…"

"But what?" He waves the paper in my face, pleading for answers, "Are you even going to tell me what the hell is going on? You have been so distant… so… infuriating for weeks and now out of the blue you show up at my office with some stupid paper from Hacker. I am not going to agree to your little sex games with him. He is my damn boss!" He hisses as he leans over the table, a few millimeters from my face, "I know I am _just_ your partner and I know it is not my right but… Bones… I just can't. I just… can't." His face falls but that just causes his forehead to brush against my lips.

"Please… just sign it…" I plead, eyes wide in devotion as my lips drag across his skin, "please."

"And what if I do?" His voice catches as my lips stop their soft movements, "Will you ever tell me?"

"Yes." The word washes over his body as he slowly signs and pushes the paper forward, refusing to look up.

"There. Fine. Happy?" He whispers, defeated.

"Booth." I reverently gasp his name and his face finally lifts in shock.

Without giving my mind a second to process it, I press my lips against his in the softest, desire filled kiss I can manage. I suddenly pull back and run out of his office, paper in hand and leaving my partner stunned in my wake.

"I love you." I whisper softly as I run as fast as my feet will take me, knowing the loud thumps slowly inching closer can only be the sound of one man I adore.


	5. Enigma

"Stop…" I hear breathy before a cascade of increasing footsteps, "Bones… please just stop."

At the sound of the hitch in his voice my feet pick up speed until I come face to face with the front door of the Hoover building. It is times like these where I hoped their doors were automatic. _Stupid _doors flee preventing doors.

Those beautiful brown orbs of his I know will hold all the answers I seek but as I crumple I know that is not a burden this weary heart can take. Just once glance and I know it will shatter all preconceived notions of what a partner really is, what my partner is. His voice strains, begging me to just look up… to give us a chance.

_I gotta find someone whose... whose gonna love me in thirty years or forty or fifty…_

I yelp out in pain as the jaunting memory plays over and over, knowing I am unable to break the cycle of emotional and physical torment. Barley blinking back the tears, I brace for a shadow that never comes. A shadow that will never come. He was always the one chasing me and after years of being beaten down, the dog just doesn't have enough fight left in him. The second a single tear falls his foot drops so suddenly I can hear our breaths merge into a single rhythm. I can feel his eyes on me but his body doesn't even flinch as I reel in pain. They scan over my body before affixing on my chest, watching the slow rising and falling of a barely beating chest. I exhale sharply and I feel those eyes twinkle against my skin. I hear the floor squeak as he lifts his foot and I know I must stop this mess before he sees how truly broken I have become.

"No…" I cry out, clutching my swelling foot, "Just, no."

"But…" His voice is so soft but he knows this is a choice I have to make. A choice I have made daily for the past five years. As much as it breaks my heart I know I must save this man from ever loving someone so broken and destructive as me. He deserves better, better than I could ever provide even after a thousand years of failed attempts. He could never possibly need me as much as I need him.

My heart cries out for a comfort only he can provide. For his arms to wrap me so tightly I forget this ache I have come accustomed to. Night by night I slowly drift asleep comforted solely by the tears of a love once lost. I knew he was once mine but the night he walked away, the night he chose to love another is a night my rational mind cannot comprehend.

How can you love someone and with one spit decision sever all lasting emotional ties?

My eyes flick up and watch his tortured hand shakily dart out as if to calm my nerves. His eyes are pleading and for what I am not sure. Isn't this what he wanted? Didn't he expect me to give him the space to move on even though it is beating me up inside? I wretch my eyes away on a groan as I drag myself up from the ground. The second my body turns away I feel a void where his steady eyes once were. The whole building watches as our partnership slowly falls apart due to my inability to just give in to his comforting gaze.

My once chance at love is coming crashing down and all for what? Stupid, melodramatic rationality. I would give anything to just for a split second to be able to understand emotions but without my rock I am on very shaky ground. And I know the sand is quick to take me under.

"You and the doc get in a fight?" I hear Charlie's voice fade as I hobble around the now congested lobby, refusing to walk through the doors.

"She…" I feel Booth's eyes dart back to me before locking on Charlie, "She doesn't _need_ me anymore." I turn just in time to watch him slowly walk away, the love once radiating now shooting daggers through this meager soul.

Need. He _needs_ me to need him. For years of beating himself down over past choices, he relishes in the fact that he is needed by a woman who sees him as perfectly flawless. He needs to be needed… by me. After all I have done, all that I have destroyed… he still needs me. And that is all this heart desired, to be needed and wanted. The word plays over and over, breathing life into this disaster of a woman. My mind flickers through countless times I needed him and never once did he leave me wondering, he was always there proving his devotion and _love_. Yet at a time when he needed me, I ran as far as my feet would take me.

_Just turn around_ my eyes plead as I watch him slump down the hall, _please._

"Booth!" My raspy cry causes all eyes to fall on me once more, "Booth! Wait up!"

But he just continues his slow descent down the hall, flinching as my words beat his body. I attempt to run after him but soon fall in a loud heap as my feet give in before me.

"Booth… I… I love you…" The words flow against my damaged will, speaking thoughts I have denied for so long. I heave deeply as the tears flow without ceasing. My body flinches but I am soon overcome with a long denied sense of happiness at the truth.

I watch him slowly stop but refuse to turn around as the smile falls drip by slow drip.

"However long it takes…" I stand and take a few steps before falling again.

The light ping of a single silver band bouncing down the hall sends my heart aflutter. My eyes watch it bounce freely then begin to roll. My eyes snap close as the pinging burns itself deep into my memory and fills my sense. My eyes open just in time to see a light silver glimmer resting right before his feet.

Now or never, Temperance. He will know.

"I'll wait…" I swallow, trying to still the blur of images my world has become, "I'll wait as long as it takes."

He turns and takes a step, landing squarely on my deep held secret. He sniffs and my eyes are drawn to the lines of liquid drenching his face. Not tears of sorrow but tears radiating from the smile firmly affixed to his lips. His eyes glance down at the precious piece of metal crushed under his boot and I soon am at a loss of words.

This doctor is going to have a lot of explaining to do just as the pounding stops and my world turns to black.


	6. The Voices in My Head

I know I haven't written much of anything in a while, but with school starting back up soon the chapters should be more regular. This and a few of my other stories have half written chapters waiting on my muse. This was one of the more difficult chapters and did go in many different directions before I settled on this so I hope you enjoy it for as it is.

* * *

It wasn't as I was lying but as my body slips in and out of reality one fact remains, I am petrified. I love my best friend, the man who above all else has been my rock and salvation when I was nothing more than damaged goods. A man who wants forever when I can only provide a lifetime; a lifetime filled with regret and sorrow. How am I supposed give him forever when I have already given him my life?

"Bones… Bones please…" A familiar plea jolted me from a world of frantic terror, beckoning me back to my reality, "Please… baby… just…"

As my eyes slowly roll open a flood of relief fills the man kneeling down before me as his hands slowly roll off my shoulders. His eyes search mine but soon fall as he slowly leans back, trying to deflect the wall of tension building against my stone cold eyes. Without a seconds notice he drops my body against the cool tile, leaving my body to slightly shake in terror.

"Thanks." He feebly shakes, unable to deny the sincerity in my eyes. "I… I… just thanks for waking up. It would be nearly impossible to break in a new hot anthropologist. Or even to find one…" He trails off, mumbling into his tear stained palms.

My mouth falls open, trying to rational prove the fallacy in his logic but the sorrow rimming around his eyes is much more than my fragile heart can take. I watch as his eyes dance around my body, refusing to lock eyes with mine. The sorrow filling my very soul is much more then I can bare, but as his shoes slide against the tile I know my fate is sealed.

"Booth… please." The words finally fall but it is much too late. The damage has been done. It has been months since he has been mine, if he ever was. And the delicate string that has been holding our partnership together is on the verge of snapping; all because of three small words that hold the weight of the world.

"I'm sorry." I mumble lightly against the void only my partner can fill, "I didn't mean to…"

I try to stop his backtracking but nothing can stop my heart from shattering. The panic flickering across his eyes is just too much as my body shudders and my eyes roll back once more. In a flash I can feel his body instantly, protectively hovering over mine. The heat radiating from his hand cascades across my body, stopping short of my pale checks but that is not enough to keep this fragile heart from stopping.

He is running.

Running as far and fast as his feet will take him. I can feel his heart slip from my firm grasp but the reality of this situation can't stop the truth from flowing from deep within. I must tell him, he must know. If in the end he leaves I will at least know I tried, tried to reach the unobtainable and finally be able to defy all logic and just love.

"Booth…." I rasp, pleading with my mind for just one more heartbeat, one more chance to undo the countless lies I have told him over the years. I love him and whatever happens today, I know I always will.

"Everyone… everyone just back up!" Booth growls as his eyes dart across the vastly increasing crowd, "Now!" And with that everyone scatters, leaving us with the plaguing guilt of a love once lost.

"Bo… Booth… Seeley…" I plead but as the darkness looms overhead I know my calls are fleeting and silent against a rapidly beating heart.

Why can he not hear my calls? Has he fallen so far away that he cannot recognize my voice? The man I once knew would come running without even a word, but here I lay dying of heartbreak and not even the truth could save me now. Was what we once had just one big fantasy of lies and trickery?

"If this is just some sick and twisted game to get me to stay, it isn't funny Temperance." He snarls. I can hear the terror coursing through his words but as my body slowly begins to shut down I know this could be the end.

But the silence just pushes him further toward the ledge of heartbreak and denial.

"Just wake the hell up." His voice is soft and pleading. The tears streaking down his ridged checks finally splatter across my face in a fear he can no longer deny. "Open those eyes… please."

"Booth…" I choke out against the coldness filling my veins and as my world slows and darkens one singular word pulls me back from the pits of my self-created hell.

"Yes."


End file.
